Development and application of a portable LIPS system for characterising copper alloy artefacts

We report the development of a novel portable and low-cost laser induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) system and describe the application method for quantitative characterisation of quaternary copper alloy artefacts. The device was carefully calibrated and phenomenologically characterised using a set of reference samples. The reliability of the quantitative measurement of the depth profile and bulk compositions was assessed through crossed comparisons with traditional analytical techniques. Finally, the LIPS system was applied to investigate a museum figurine of unknown origin composed of several pieces, which is representative of a typical authentication problem.